A chance reading of a couple of blogs with reports of visits to LA BRENNE National Park a decision was made to change an attempted visit to
Scotland to LA BRENNE France. Living on 17 miles from Plymouth with the very comfortable Armorique of Brittany Ferries making the crossing in around 6 hours meant only one long drive on the mostly
much quieter French roads.

Next problem – accommodation – having never visited the area before the report by Martin Smith from Wantage mentioned staying at a Chambre d’hote
at Champ d’oeuf run by an English couple Sue and Chris Mooney. A visit to their web sitewww.laconfiance.netprovided further background information, an e.mail to Sue resulted in a telephone
call 30 minutes later and I booked for 4 nights with all meals (and wine) included at a very competitive price of 125 euros per night for Anne and myself.

The welcome we received from Sue and Chris (not very often you get to talk football in central France between fans of Newcastle United (Chris) and
Middlesbrough (me) was fantastic – Chris is an ex-Army Chef who has also cooked in some very upmarket establishments – dinner was never less than 5 courses and lots of conversation, our evenings were
started at 7pm, and rarely finished before 11p.m

When you are out birding in the area the last thing you want to do is finding somewhere for lunch Sue has solved this with her cool-box packed
lunch and if you take a flask she will fill it with some great coffee daily.

It is probably over 20 years since we have taken a relaxing holiday in rural France – enjoyed it so much we stayed on extra night and before
leaving we booked a week for June 2013 – I have never booked a return visit so far in advance it was that good.

Having arrived in Roscoff at 21.30 we stayed overnight at comfortable Hotel La Residence, breakfasted and on our way by 9.00a.m. on 21st
June. The journey to LA BRENNE took just over 7 hours – 360 miles, and by 16.00 we were in our first hide salivating at the birds around the lake. Chris provided us with local
maps and pointed out the main Birdwatching sites, there are over 1000 lakes within the national park.

Our first visit next morning was to the main Birdwatching centre at Maison de la Nature where we were fortunate to meet local resident (for more
than 20 years)Tony Williams.

His current project is a colour ringing scheme for the 800+ pairs of WHISKERED TERN that nest in the park. A sightings board indicates
what has been seen recently and at which lakes (Etangs in France).

Whilst my wife Anne is not an obsessed birder (her definition of me) the fact that most of the major sites had comfortable hides and she did not
have any cooking to do meant we had 4 days birding and a little sightseeing.

We did’nt make any attempt to actively seek any list of species – during the trip we achieved a total of 114 with a fair number of commoner species
not seen.

Our return journey took us along the Loire with the first overnight stop in SAUMUR (Hotel Mercure) with a room overlooking the river – both LITTLE
AND COMMON TERN flying through. On 27th June we decided to take the tourist route along the banks of the Loire to Angers before driving to North Brittany and our overnight destination of
Perius Gouric.

We stopped a 3 locations along the Liore to look at birds on sandbanks in the middle of the river – another good idea. Scoping these
sandbanks produced over 150 LITTLE TERN 100+ COMMON TERN, a pair of STONE CURLEW, 11 LITTLE RINGED PLOVER plus lots of YELLOW-LEGGED GULL, LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL and around 20 LAPWING.

Our final day was a journey of around 40 miles to reach our port of departure ROSCOFF – via the coastal road to MORLAIX.

We have many visitors to Devon most of whom drive here and then find extortionate charges to park your car – up to £6 for a day. I was not changed
any parking fees at all throughout our holiday. Using the Autoroute to reach le Champ d’oeuf as quickly as possible cost just under 20 Euros. My car is a Honda CRV which on a
full tank will do 400+ miles. Our total distance travelled was 1009 miles. Diesel fuel was very competitively priced – at the supermarkets I was paying 1.26 Euros per litre
less than £1.05 in Sterling.

Our total of 114 species included the following:-

MUTE SWAN – On quite a few of the lakes with over 300 on Etang de la Gabrierre.

GADWALL - Found on at least 3 Etangs – but no more than 2/3 per site.

MALLARD – Common throughout.

SHOVELER – 2 males on Etang Essarts.

POCHARD – Common on many Etang.

TUFTED DUCK – Common on many Etang.

RED CRESTED POCHARD – Found on several Etang – female with 6 young on Etang Essart.

SHELDUCK – One on the North Brittany Coast.

PHEASANT – Only recorded twice but probably overlooked.

CORMORANT – Common throughout. Many breeding pairs at Etang Blazon.

SHAG – Seen from Ferry Crossing and at Perros Gouric.

NIGHT HERON – Both adults and Juvs observed. Main breeding site at E. Blazon.

GANNET – Many from Ferry Crossing, 100+ on N.Brittany coast.

MANX SHEARWATER – 5 seen from return Ferry Crossing.

CATTLE EGRET – 3 at E. Essarts.

LITTLE EGRET – Seen on many of the Etang.

GREAT WHITE EGRET – Singles at E des Foucault and lakes near Les Bergereaux (D18 out of Martizay).

GREY HERON – Very common throughout the region.

PURPLE HERON – Over 40 logged, seen at all Etang – best views (down to 15 feet) at Etang de Sous.